When most people start thinking about weight loss, they pay special attention to eating more low fat foods and getting more exercise. Yet many dieters probably wouldn’t consider how a lack of sleep might be getting in the way of achieving the weight loss results they’re aiming for. And many of us almost certainly wouldn’t consider how our sleep quality may also be affecting the health of our family.

Lack of sleep changes food shopping habits

Research from Swedish scientists published in the journal ‘Obesity’ has suggested that when study participants (all of normal weight) experienced just one sleepless night, they became more likely to not only buy higher calorie foods, but also more of it than they normally would during an average food shopping session.

To counteract the effects of hunger on their shopping choices, the participants were each given breakfast before being presented with a range of foods they could buy with a personal budget of around £30. However, even after eating, the participants purchased more calorific foods after a poor night’s sleep than they did after a good night’s sleep.

The study suggests that not only can a lack of sleep cause people to make poor food choices for themselves, but that if you are the main food shopper in your household, those food choices could be affecting the rest of the family too. Even if sleep is improved the following night, you’re still left with the less healthy food shopping choices of the day before stocked in the fridge and cupboard.

The reason for this change in behaviour may be two-fold. The researchers found that when people experienced poor sleep or no sleep at all, they also experienced an increase of the kind of hormone which is responsible for feelings of hunger. The research also suggests that decreased willpower and heightened impulsiveness also contributed to participants selecting more food, and foods with higher calorie content. Hypnosis for sleep could restore a healthy sleep pattern allowing better food choices for all concerned.

It’s not just the purchase of high calorific foods that causes problems. When clients are fatigued due to a lack of sleep they find it very difficult to stay motivated during our hypnotherapy for weight loss programme.

Paul Howard, Institute Director at the Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy, said “Hypnosis for sleep can really help clients to return to normal sleep patterns. When we work with clients for weight loss quite often the clients have sleep problems and we have to deal with the insomnia issue so that they can stay focused during the weight loss hypnotherapy.”

Hypnosis for sleep = better sleep and better health

“Our finding provides a strong rationale for suggesting that patients with concerns regarding caloric intake and weight gain maintain a healthy, normal sleep schedule,” said Colin Chapman, a lead author of the study from Uppsala University in Sweden. “Our findings demonstrate that participants purchased significantly more calories and grams of food, within the same budget, following sleep deprivation. This is significant as the stocks that one purchases last beyond the acute sleep deprivation, and will influence food consumption choices long after the purchases are made.”

These findings certainly form a strong case for the benefits of hypnosis for sleep, not simply so as to help an individual feel more rested and balanced, but also to help insomnia-suffering dieters experience improved weight loss.

Those who find sticking to a diet plan a struggle often find that hypnotherapy for weight loss is a big help. So using the therapy to resolve both problems could prove a real revelation, perhaps particularly for those who work varying shift patterns and are unable to develop a beneficial sleep routine, such as health workers, taxi drivers or those who work in the emergency services.

About Paul Howard

Paul Howard has been practising hypnotherapy at the Surrey Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy in Wallington, Surrey for over 12 years. He specialises in hypnotherapy for anxiety and psoriasis and is a Fellow and the former Marketing Director for the National Council for Hypnotherapy.